This invention generally relates to the management and request brokering of standardized reports. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and apparatus for selecting and requesting a report from a catalog of standardized reports.
Many businesses and other organizations store an enormous amount of data in computer databases. There are many difficulties, however, with managing and obtaining access to that data. For example, many businesses do not have a single source or system to obtain standardized business reports. Also, generally, there is a lack of process related to how reports are created and made available to end users, and there is a lack of report categorization and taxonomy associated to support decisions on which report to request.
In addition, often there is an inability for the user to see what a report will look like before requesting the report, and an inability to support parameter driven requests against standardized business reports. Conventional procedures are not able to define and request reports against multiple sources from the same report catalog. Moreover, in many cases, a user needs to be connected to a network in order to request reports, and the technology used to create the report drives the technology used to request the report.
There clearly exists a need for a method and apparatus that allows a business to create a catalog of standardized business reports and to provide that report catalog to end users for use in selecting and requesting a report.
An object of this invention is to provide a method and apparatus to find, request and view reports of any nature.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a product that delivers a method and set of functions to define new reports and to make them available to sets of users.
A further object of this invention is to provide one single application to define, to select, and from which to request business reports.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a standard procedure for defining and launching business reports.
These and other objectives are attained with a report catalog tool and a method for selecting and requesting a report from a catalog of standardized reports. The catalog tool comprises a distributable database having one or more documents, each said document representing a report, and attributes for said report indicating a location where logic resides for said report and a data source to be used for said report. The catalog tool further comprises means for allowing a user to order and configure a requested report, means for formatting said order as a transaction on a target system at said location and using said data source, and means for running said transaction to generate said requested report and to return said requested report to said user.
Preferably, the report catalog contains attributes for each report that define:
a graphical depiction of the report;
a categorization of the report (where categories are defined by a super administrator for each report catalog);
a set of parameters that the report will receive as input and which will be used to generate the report;
valid values for those parameters;
who can access the report; and
a set of formats for the returned report.
With the preferred embodiment of this invention, an end user is able to see all of the available reports, and to submit a report request from the catalog if that report is available to the user (based on the access granted to the user). This report request may be used to indicate what parameters they would like to use in generating the report, and to indicate how they would like the report delivered back to them. Further, the end user is able to store reports and parameter definitions as documents, such as Lotus Notes documents.
Further benefits and advantages of the invention will become apparent from a consideration of the following detailed description, given with reference to the accompanying drawings, which specify and show preferred embodiments of the invention.